Why Media Literacy Is A Must: Remote Possibilities

With student screen time at all-time highs and social isolation increasingly affecting kids, the scourge of fake news is a bigger threat than ever. Nick Farrell, co-founder of Bites Media, has some ideas of how to combat it. On this episode of Remote Possibilities, Nick talks about the importance of media literacy and how schools can take direct action to empower their students to not take the bait.
The idea is relatively straight forward, as described by in a recent Forbes post: “Bites takes contemporary issues in the news, sourced from reliable and reputable outlets, then shrinks the information down into smaller, faster, more consumable chucks – or, bites – for younger readers. They then take that content and build comprehension lessons around it, allowing teachers to build important issue literacy around these key topics. The content and the lessons are built and delivered online, in easy, turnkey modules for teachers or parents.”
Hogan and Farrell discuss a variety of topics including the how and why they are launching this endeavour and how he sees the future developing in this pandemic era.
What They Do

*Bites crafts and publishes interactive, multimedia news stories that provide the facts with rich context from diverse viewpoints.We work with graduate and undergraduate journalism students to pull 10+ sources into one place

*Bites utilizes an explanatory journalistic approach, but we also make explicit connections between what is happening and why it matters to democracy and citizenry.
This approach is proven to increase student engagement by at least 3 times.
Why They Do It
*Bites believes in prioritizing a foundation of understanding and fostering deep engagement to cultivate informed citizens and civic action.
*Bites believes it is our civic duty to be informed citizens that go beyond simply casting a vote.